JAPN 308
JAPN 308: Japanese Popular Culture
Course Description
This course explores post WWII Japanese music, literature, artistic media, and hi-tech products. Investigates social themes ranging from post-holocaust Japanese hedonism to childhood fantasies by looking at Manga comic books, Animation, and popular music, as well as fashion and style, popular technology, consumerism, and environmental issues. Explores the evolution of pop culture and its impact on society. Taught in English.
Course Description
This course explores post WWII Japanese music, literature, artistic media, and hi-tech products. Investigates social themes ranging from post-holocaust Japanese hedonism to childhood fantasies by looking at Manga comic books, Animation, and popular music, as well as fashion and style, popular technology, consumerism, and environmental issues. Explores the evolution of pop culture and its impact on society. Taught in English.
This course contributed to fulfilling Major Learning outcome 4, which is understanding a secondary culture other than Spanish. In Japanese 308 I was introduced to Japan's popular culture. Japanese popular culture encompasses things like cuteness, anime, manga, film, and music. Before this class I had no idea that Japanese popular culture even existed. But thanks to the class assignments, I became a lot more informed about Japan's popular culture. The readings in the class gave us an understanding of the things that related to popular culture. Every other week we were assigned a Bi-weekly report. In this report we were to pick two main points that stood out to us and provide evidence of those main points. These Bi-weekly reports expanded my knowledge on many topics. But one thing that stood out was how individuals in Japan would consume cute items and write in a more cute and bubbly way, in order to feel a sense of freedom. For example when I write, “Individuals were into fancy goods, fashion, and cute writing because they felt that they had a sense of freedom" (p.1). Thanks to this assignment, it became clear that cuteness in Japanese popular culture gave individuals in Japan a sense of freedom. Another assignment that gave me an even better understanding of Japan’s popular culture was the ten page research paper we were assigned. In this paper I argued that media forms like anime, and trendy dramas serve viewers more than just entertainment; they offer potential touring locations, religious practices, and shopping catalogues. From this I learned that the anime television series, Lucky star influenced individuals to tour the site that was featured on the show, after watching it. After being exposed to this, I saw how different Japan’s culture was to hispanic cultures. Hispanic culture is very different than Japan’s popular culture. It doesn’t encompass things like anime, cuteness, or manga. At first I didn’t understand why it was a requirement to take a course outside of the Spanish major. But after being exposed to Japan’s popular culture, I grew respect for it, although it was different from hispanic culture. It is now evident to why it is a requirement to take . Although my knowledge on Japan’s popular culture expanded, I still hope to learn more about anime and manga, since they are so big in Japan. This course relates to my Spanish 306: Culture and civilization of Latin america, course. Both of these classes cover the culture of a specific region. They show the different characteristics that make up a culture. To further my learning experience about Japan’s popular culture, I am going to read scholarly articles. But I also hope to read manga and watch more anime to further my understanding of them.
Biweekly Report | |
File Size: | 16 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Japanese Final Research Paper | |
File Size: | 24 kb |
File Type: | docx |